SOCIAL

[Burma Frontier Service;Evelyn Waugh's batman] 105 items: confidential correspondence, memoranda, reports, printed docs, telegrams, cuttings) relating to R.E.S. Tanner's BFS application and training, including a Civil Affairs Staff Centre course.

Author: 
Burma Frontier Service; Civil Affairs Staff Centre, Wimbledon; Ralph Esmond Selby Tanner (1921-2017), Social Anthropologist, East African colonial administrator, Evelyn Waugh's batman
Publication details: 
Burma and London (including Whitehall and the Civil Affairs Staff Centre, Southlands House, Wimbledon Common). Between 1946 and 1948.
£850.00

For biographical details of Dr R. E. S. Tanner, see the end of this description. Brown card folder (by The Parker File Co. Ltd, Rangoon), housing 105 items (confidential correspondence, memoranda, applications, advisory and information documents, reports, telegrams, newspaper cuttings) relating to Tanner's application and training for a Civil Affairs post in Burma, including material from the training course he undertook at the Civil Affairs Staff Centre, Wimbledon. The folder and its contents are in fair condition, lightly-aged and worn.

[‘The most fashionable place in London’: The Clarendon Hotel, Bond Street; Foreign 'Great and Good@] Around 180 entries in the hotel guestbook, on extracted leaves, the greater part of them signatures of ‘Nobility and Gentry, and Foreigners of rank’.

Author: 
‘The most fashionable place in London’: The Clarendon Hotel, Bond Street [Georgian England]
Publication details: 
The Clarendon Hotel, Bond Street, London. The entries all said to date from 1831.
£1,200.00

The Clarendon Hotel was once - as ‘Routledge’s Popular Guide to London’ stated in 1862 - ‘the most fashionable place in London’, and the present collection of autograph signatures from its guestbook, all of them said to date from 1831, bear witness to the fact that - as ‘Gilbert’s Visitor’s Guide to London’ (1851) states - it was ‘frequented by the Nobility and Gentry, and Foreigners of rank’. Its reputation had been made during the Regency period, and in 1820 ‘Leigh’s New Picture of London’ stated that it ‘and Jaquiers are now one hotel’.

[English Social History: A working-class London cinema-goer.] Two exercise books, filled with 385 manuscript entries by ‘Miss Renee Fish’ of Catford, detailing ‘Films I have seen’, between 1930 and 1934, and 1939 and 1943, at various London cinemas.

Author: 
[English Social History: A working-class London cinema-goer in the 1930s and 1940s; the movies; the pictures; the flicks]
Publication details: 
‘Miss Renee Fish, / 112, Allerford Road / Catford, / S.E.6. [London]’ First exercise book: 272 entries between 3 January 1930 and 27 October 1934. Second exercise book: 113 entries between 12 June 1939 and 20 March 1943.
£450.00

An interesting agglomeration of ephemera London cinematic information. The author is working-class or lower-middle-class. Two sturdy ruled small 4to exercise books, with black covers of ribbed watered cloth and spine of red cloth. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. ONE: 150pp. Ownership inscription on inside of front cover: ‘Miss Renee Fish, / 112, Allerford Road / Catford, / S.E.6.’ The first page is headed: ‘31. 12. 29. Films I have seen during 1930.’ Each of the volume’ The entries are numbered from 1 to 272, with an additional numeration for each year from the second year onwards.

[‘There’s a charm about W. B. Corsets’: Edwardian corsetry.] Trade catalogue for ‘Davey Brothers, Corset Specialists, The Drapery Emporium, Faversham [Kent]’, with numerous illustrations of ‘W. B. Nuform’ corsets.

Author: 
Edwardian corsetry [W. B. Corsets; ‘Davey Brothers, Corset Specialists, The Drapery Emporium, Faversham [Kent]’; trade catalogues]
Corsets
Corsets2
Publication details: 
No date [Edwardian or Georgian]. 'Davey Brothers, Corset Specialists, The Drapery Emporium, Faversham [Kent]’
£180.00
Corsets
Corsets2

A nice piece of Edwardian trade ephemera. It would appear that W. B. Corsets were running a franchise scheme, providing suppliers with their catalogue and printing the franchisee's name on the back cover: little is to be discovered about either firm. No other copy traced. Hard to date: the corsets have an Edwardian feel, but some features of the illustrations may suggest a slightly later date. A 12mo stapled pamphlet, consisting of 20 pages on ten leaves of shiny paper: unnumbered front and back leaves, and pages on central eight leaves numbered 1-16.

[Dr Thomas Guthrie, Scottish divine and popular preacher, leader of the temperance and Ragged School movements.] Autograph Letter Signed, acknowledging a 'Kind Gift of £1 to the Original Ragged School'.

Author: 
Thomas Guthrie (1803-1873), Scottish divine and philanthropist, one of the most popular preachers of his day in Scotland, where he was a leader of the temperance and Ragged School movements
Publication details: 
16 February 1872. 28 Westbourne Terrace, London.
£50.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 16mo. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn, and folded twice for postage. Firmly written in a somewhat florid hand. Reads: ‘Dear Sir / Accept my Grateful thanks for your Kind Gift of £1 to the Original Ragged School & believe me with much respect yours truly / Thomas Guthrie’.

[John Venn, Anglican cleric, abolitionist and central figure in the Clapham Sect of social reformers.] Autograph Signature to the conclusion of a letter.

Author: 
John Venn (1759-1813), Church of England clergyman and abolitionist, a central figure in the Clapham Sect of social reformers
Venn
Publication details: 
‘Clapham 10 Sepr. 1810’.
£56.00
Venn

Venn features in the Oxford DNB article on his father Henry Venn (1725-1797). In fair condition, on lightly-aged paper. Two rectangles cut from a letter, laid down on one side of a 14 x 5.5 cm piece of thicker paper. The first rectangle, 12.5 x 2.5 cm, carries the conclusion of the letter: ‘[...]ain are truly I am my dear / your ever faithful & affect Friend / J Venn’. At the foot of the slip, in pencil in a Victorian hand: ‘X (Son of “Complete duty of Man”). Beneath this slip is the second one, 9 x 1.5 cm, which gives the date: ‘Clapham 10 Sepr. 1810’.

[Norman Kerr, Scottish physician and social reformer.] Autograph Card Signed, thanking the headmaster and philanthropist Dawson William Turner for an ‘interesting & useful pamphlet’.

Author: 
Norman Kerr [Norman Shanks Kerr] (1834-1899), Scottish physician, social reformer and leading light of the British temperance movement [Dawson William Turner (1815-1885), teacher and philanthropist]
Publication details: 
9 January 1885. 42 Grove Street, Regent’s Park, NW [London].
£56.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. The recipient is not to be confused with his father the botanist Dawson Turner (1775-1858), whose entry contains the following regarding the son: ‘During his final decade he lived in central London, and his untidy figure became familiar to the needy in hospitals and on the streets, whom he assisted with dedicated benevolence. He died in Charing Cross Hospital, London, on 29 January 1885, and was buried at Brompton cemetery.’ The present item was hence written within weeks of the recpient’s death. Post Card printed with red halfpenny stamp.

[Elizabeth Missing Sewell, English author of religious and educational texts.] Autograph Signature (‘Elizabeth M Sewell’) cut from a letter.

Author: 
Elizabeth M. Sewell [Elizabeth Missing Sewell] (1815-1906), English author of religious and educational texts
Sewell
Publication details: 
Without place or date.
£25.00
Sewell

An uncommon signature. See her entry in the Oxford DNB. The valediction of a letter, cut away for an autograph collector. On a slip of paper, around 7.5 x 2 cm. Somewhat aged and worn, backed with discoloured card. Reads: ‘Very truly yours / Elizabeth M Sewell’. See Image.

[G. C. Williamson [George Charles Williamson] (1858-1942), art historian ‘Rowley Cleeve’, who advised J. Pierpont Morgan on purchases.] Two Typed Letters Signed to social historian Amy Cruse, praising her books and discussing a Milton portraits.

Author: 
G. C. Williamson [George Charles Williamson] (1858-1942), art historian and ‘Rowley Cleeve’, who advised J. Pierpont Morgan on purchases [Amy Cruse (1870-1951; née Barter), social historian]
Publication details: 
16 October and 5 December 1941; each on letterhead ‘From Doctor Williamson / Mount Manor House, / The Mount, / Guildford, Surrey.’
£120.00

Some of Williamson’s papers are held by Boston College. These two items are each 1p, 4to, on aged and worn paper, the first letter with blotting to signature. The two are held together by strip of paper mount. Written little more than a year before Williamson’s death. ONE: 16 October 1941. Begins: ‘Dear Miss Cruse, / I am delighted to have your letter of October 9th, and so glad that my epistle to you gave you any pleasure.’ He finds her books ‘very delightful’, and names ‘the other two’, of whose existence he was ignorant.

[Amy Cruse, author and editor; Englishman & His Books] Album of correspondence from Maurice Baring; Sidney Colvin; Alfred Noyes; Austin Dobson; Stopford Brooke, Lord Sanderson and others, drafts and notes by widower C. J. Cruse, and news cuttings.

Author: 
Amy Cruse (1870-1951; née Barter); Maurice Baring; Sidney Colvin; Alfred Noyes; Austin Dobson; Stopford Brooke; Harry C. W. Verney
Publication details: 
Correspondence dating f1911-61; most from London and the Home Counties. Cuttings from English newspapers and magazines, 1927 to 1951.
£450.00

It is perhaps appropriate that we should have been left such a collection by an author who made a name for herself with pioneering works on the social history of English literature.

[‘The Vagrant, Criminal, and Inebriate Classes’: Wilson Carlile (‘The Chief’), Prebendary of St Paul’s Cathedral and Founder of the Church Army.] Autograph Letter Signed, asking W. S. De Winton for assistance in helping persons to a ‘fresh start’.

Author: 
Wilson Carlile [‘The Chief’] (1847-1942), Anglican evangelist, founder in 1882 of the Church Army and Prebendary of St Paul's Cathedral [Wilfred Seymour De Winton of Haverfordwest]
Publication details: 
5 May 1896; on leterhead of 130 Edgeware Road, London W.
£220.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. The Church Army, still active today, was founded in 1882 as a Church of England equivalent to the Methodists’ Salvation Army. From the papers of the recipient Wilfred Seymour De Winton of Haverfordwest. 3pp, 12mo. On a bifolium of grey paper. In good condition, lightly aged. Signed ‘W Carlile / Hon. Chief Sec.’ To the left of the signature, in the bottom-left of the recto of the second leaf, is a purple ink stamp of the following: ‘WRITTEN BY ONE OF OUR POOR STRUGGLING LABOUR HOME BROTHERS’.

[Mary Carpenter, educationist, penal and social reformer in Bristol and India, abolitionist.] Autograph Letter Signed to ‘Miss Thompson’, following a meeting at the Bristol Social Science Congress.

Author: 
Mary Carpenter (1807-1877), educationist, penal and social reformer in Bristol and India, abolitionist [Bristol Social Science Congress, 1869]
Publication details: 
9 October 1869; Bristol.
£45.00

See her entry in the Oxford DNB. The ‘Congress’ she is referring to in the letter is the 1869 Bristol Social Science Congress. 1p, 16mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice. Reads: ‘Dear Miss Thompson / It gave me pleasure to see you at the Congress I feel sure you will have heard much here which will stimulate you to further work. / I enclose you my carte as a remembrance. / Yours truly / Mary Carpenter. -’

[Lilian Mary Faithfull, Principal of Cheltenham Ladies’ College, social reformer and advocate of women’s rights.] Autograph Card Signed inviting Miss Muriel Lewis of Carshalton to lunch the following day.

Author: 
Lilian Mary Faithfull (1865-1952), Principal of Cheltenham Ladies’ College, social reformer and advocate of women’s rights, one of the ‘Steamboat ladies’ who pushed for the admission of women to the u
Publication details: 
No date, but with Kensington postmark of 6 November [1914?]; 1 Campden Grove, Kensington [London].
£45.00

An attractive artefact of a pioneer of women’s rights. See her entry in the Oxford DNB. On 14 x 9 cm post card. In good condition, lightly aged. Addressed by Faithfull, with two stamps and postmarks, to ‘Miss Muriel Lewis / Greyhound Hotel / Carshalton / Surrey’. In neat hand and with good firm signature: ‘1 Campden Grove Kensington / I hope to see you to lunch to-morrow Monday at 1. pm. / Yrs. / L. M. Faithfull’.

[Canon Barnett [Samuel Augustus Barnett], clergyman and social reformer who founded Toynbee Hall.] Autograph Letter Signed, asking ‘Maud’ to send violet leaves three times a week to William Tourell, who is dying of cancer.

Author: 
Canon Barnett [Samuel Augustus Barnett] (1844-1913), Church of England cleric and social reformer who founded the East End university settlement Toynbee Hall [East London Shoeblack Brigade]
Publication details: 
8 June 1902; on letterhead of St. Jude’s Cottage, Spaniard’s Road, Hampstead Heath, N.W. [London]
£56.00

Barnett’s entry in the Oxford DNB accepts his ‘greatness’ and discusses its nature. 1p, 16mo. On bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once. The subject of this letter is William Tourell, Superintendent of the East London Shoeblack Brigade, a charity of which Barnett was treasurer. The letter begins: ‘Dear Maud. / My Friend Towrell [sic] is dying of cancer. He is taking violet leaves & somehow the disease seems arrested. The doctor says he had better go on taking these leaves as they may be doing good’.

[‘I was aiding the poor in speaking so frankly to the rich’: Anthony Wilson Thorold, successively Bishop of Rochester and Winchester.] Long Autograph Letter Signed criticising the middle and upper classes for excluding the poor from churches.

Author: 
A. W. Thorold [Anthony Wilson Thorold] (1825-1895), successively Bishop of Rochester and Winchester, who recruited Isabella Gilmore to revive the female diaconate in the Anglican Communion
Publication details: 
6 January 1863; 16 Bedford Square [London]. On his embossed armorial letterhead.
£56.00

An interesting and empassioned letter, highlighting one aspect of the debate over the class inequalities present in mid-Victorian England. See Thorold’s entry in the Oxford DNB. 8pp, 12mo. On two bifoliums. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice. Signed ‘A. W. Thorold’. The recipient is not named. He begins by stating that his speech at Islington lasted twenty-five minutes, as opposed to the report in the journal he has sent him, which ‘could be easily spoken in two’, and does not give a ‘fair notion of its point and aim’.

[E. V. Knox [Edmund George Valpy Knox] (1881-1971, ‘Evoe’), editor of ‘Punch’.] Two Typed unpublished Talks on Punch, one dealing with the magazine’s place in social history, the other with its politics. With two drafts of the first, one in autograph

Author: 
E. V. Knox [Edmund George Valpy Knox] (1881-1971, ‘Evoe’), editor of ‘Punch’ 1932-1948, humorist, essayist and poet [son of Edmund Abruthnott Knox, brother of Ronald, Dillwyn and Wilfred Knox]
Publication details: 
[Hampstead, London.] 1948 and 1949.
£2,500.00

See Knox’s entry in the Oxford DNB, along with those of his father Edmund Arbuthnott Knox, his brothers Ronald, Dillwyn and Wilfred, his wife the ‘Mary Poppins’ illustrator Mary Shepard (daughter of Ernest Shepard) and his daughter the novelist Penelope Fitzgerald. At the time the present material was composed Knox had been involved with Punch for more than four decades (1904-1948), holding the editorship for the last sixteen, with the magazines circulation rising to a peak of almost 200,000 as he approached his retirement.

[F.M. Wibaut, social democrat politician, writer on economic subjects etc; Mrs Wibaut-Berdenis, feminist writer] Marriage in the Making, translated from Wordend Huwelijk by Cornelie Russell. (unpublished)

Author: 
F.M. Wibaut and Mrs Wibaut-Berdenis van Berlekom. Translator: Cornelie Russell
Publication details: 
Authorised Translation [1933] unpublished. Wordend Huwelijk first published in 1932, third edition 1933
£750.00

Typescript, 99pp., 4to, paper wraps, stapled, sl. chipped and stained, text good+. Enclosed: Brief biographical information about the Dutch joint authors, typescript, one page, edge dusted and ragged but complete. WITH: 5 pages of complimentary reviews of the Dutch edition in periodicals or by distinguished individuals. The reviews include statements that illuminate the text.

[ J.L. Hammond; social history] Autograph Letter Signed J L Hammond to Harold [Docketed H.J. Massingham], concerning the Plumage Bill.

Author: 
J.L. Hammond [John Lawrence Le Breton Hammond (1872 – 1949), journalist and writer on social history and politics]
Publication details: 
at Ben Vista, Gorran Haven, Gorran, Cornwall, 4 May 1920.
£120.00

One page, 4t, lined paper, fold marks, small closed tear, good condition. difficult hand in parts. I must send you a line to say how bitterly disappointed I am that all your magnificent work on the Plumage Bill - for which my wife & I have unbounded admiration - has ended in this [??]. It is heart breaking. This [?] generation of profiteers will destroy all the beauty left in the world. We only found out late last night what had happened & I dreamt about it all night.

[Printed work of sensational popular fiction.] The Mysterious Avenger; or, The Trials of Love. [Followed by a reprinting of De Quincey's translation of 'Der Freischütz', under the title 'William, the Fatal Marksman; or, The Seven Charmed Bullets'.]

Author: 
[Thomas De Quincey; William Walker, printer, Otley, Yorkshire]
Publication details: 
London: Published by the Booksellers. William Walker, Otley. 1847. [Slug: 'WILLIAM WALKER, PRINTER, OTLEY.']
£250.00

256pp., 12mo. With frontispiece engraving and vignette on title. In original brown cloth binding, with blind-stamped decorative pattern on the boards, and title and design on the spine. Ownership inscription of 'Arthur Baxter | Runcorn | 1861' on piece of paper laid down on front pastedown. A tight copy, on stained paper (particularly the last few leaves) and aged paper, in worn binding with gilt almost dulled. An interesting production, reminiscent of previous Minerva Press publications, and looking ahead to the yellow-back.

[ H.D. Traill ] Autograph Letter Signed H.D. Traill to [George Townsend Warner] somewhat testily about Warner's contribution to Traill and Mann's Social England.

Author: 
H.D. Traill [ Henry Duff Traill (1842 – 1900), author and journalist.]
Publication details: 
The Mulberries, 21 October 1893.
£56.00

Three pages, 12mo, bifolium, good condition. Herewith I send your formal letter of agreement [not present] with respect to the contribution kindly forwarded by you to Social England [Traill and J.S. Mann's Social England: A Record of the Progress of the People in Religion, Laws, Learning, Arts, Industry, Commerce, Science, Literature and Manners, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day]. | I note the wish you have expressed to Mr. Mann that you may be put into communication later with the authors of other sections and will see that it is attended to.

[Theobald Mathew ['Father Mathew'], Irish Catholic priest and temperance reformer.] Autograph biblical quotation against the drinking of wine, signed 'Theobald Mathew' and dated.

Author: 
Theobald Mathew ['Father Mathew'] (1790-1856), Irish Catholic priest and temperance reformer
Publication details: 
12 September 1843. No place.
£50.00

Rectangle of paper, cut down from a larger page, with corners trimmed at the diagonal. In fair condition, lightly aged. Laid down on a piece of card. Reads: 'It is good not to eat Flesh, or Drink Wine, or do anything whereby a Brother may be caused to stumble or be made weak. Romans C. 14. V. 21. | Theobald Mathew | September 12 1843'.

[Lady Burdett-Coutts, Victorian philanthropist and social reformer.] Autograph Letter in the third person to 'Mr. Blunt', regarding a meeting with his parents at 'the Rectory'.

Author: 
Lady Burdett Coutts [Angela Georgina Burdett-Coutts, 1st Baroness Burdett-Coutts] (1814-1906), philanthropist, social reformer and one of the wealthiest women in England
Publication details: 
4 July 1894; on letterhead of 1 Stratton Street, W. [London]
£40.00

2pp, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged, with traces of grey paper from mount adhering at head of second page. Folded once. Reads: 'The Baroness Burdett Coutts sends her kind compliments and thanks to Mr. Blunt and regrets that she is unable to avail herself of the kind proposal of his Father and Mother, as she has another engagement between the City and Chelsea, but her Ladyship hopes to be at the Rectory as near Six o'clock as possible'.

[Lady Burdett-Coutts, Victorian philanthropist and social reformer.] Autograph Letter Signed ('Burdett Coutts -') in praise of an individual for his 'Protest against that hateful thing known as Vivisection'.

Author: 
Lady Burdett Coutts [Angela Georgina Burdett-Coutts, 1st Baroness Burdett-Coutts] (1814-1906), philanthropist, social reformer and one of the wealthiest women in England [Anti-Vivisection]
Publication details: 
24 March 1876; Stratton Street [London].
£65.00

3pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged, but with traces of glue on blank reverse of second leaf, which has a vertical closed tear the length of a fold line in blank space beneath signature. The male recipient is not named. The letter begins: 'Dear Sir | Do not think me intrusive but I cannot resist offering you in writing the warm thanks of my heart for your Protest against that hateful thing known as Vivisection'. She has read with 'feelings of thankfulness the expression of your opinion which Mr Froude stated with his own to Mr Cross'.

[Frances Power Cobbe, social reformer, anti-vivisectionist and women's suffrage campaigner. ] Autograph Letter Signed ('Francis P Cobbe') to 'Miss Cole', discussing 'Mr Raj' of the 'Church of One God - India', who is studying at London University.

Author: 
Frances Power Cobbe (1822-1904), Irish writer, social reformer, anti-vivisection activist, and women's suffrage campaigner
Publication details: 
No date or place.
£56.00

3pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In fair condition, on aged paper with traces of glue from mount on reverse of second leaf. The letter begins: 'Dear Miss Cole - | It is kind of you to invite Mr Raj - I have forwarded yr message to him, & told him to answer it himself. He is a very good young man studying just now for his degree in London University - a friend of [Kesemb Amrinder Senj?] & a member of the [Brahur Somcij?] (Church of the One God - of India)'. She knows nothing else about him, but 'the [Brahures?] all come to him by right'.

[Theobald Mathew ['Father Mathew'], Irish Catholic priest and temperance reformer.] Autograph biblical quotation against the drinking of wine, signed 'Theobald Mathew' and dated.

Author: 
Theobald Mathew ['Father Mathew'] (1790-1856), Irish Catholic priest and temperance reformer
Publication details: 
12 September 1843. No place.
£50.00

Rectangle of paper, cut down from a larger page, with corners trimmed at the diagonal. In fair condition, lightly aged. Laid down on a piece of card. Reads: 'It is good not to eat Flesh, or Drink Wine, or do anything whereby a Brother may be caused to stumble or be made weak. Romans C. 14. V. 21. | Theobald Mathew | September 12 1843'.

[Lady Burdett-Coutts, Victorian philanthropist and social reformer.] Autograph Letter in the third person to 'Mr. Blunt', regarding a meeting with his parents at 'the Rectory'.

Author: 
Lady Burdett Coutts [Angela Georgina Burdett-Coutts, 1st Baroness Burdett-Coutts] (1814-1906), philanthropist, social reformer and one of the wealthiest women in England
Publication details: 
4 July 1894; on letterhead of 1 Stratton Street, W. [London]
£40.00

2pp, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged, with traces of grey paper from mount adhering at head of second page. Folded once. Reads: 'The Baroness Burdett Coutts sends her kind compliments and thanks to Mr. Blunt and regrets that she is unable to avail herself of the kind proposal of his Father and Mother, as she has another engagement between the City and Chelsea, but her Ladyship hopes to be at the Rectory as near Six o'clock as possible'.

[Lady Burdett-Coutts, Victorian philanthropist and social reformer.] Autograph Letter Signed ('Burdett Coutts -') in praise of an individual for his 'Protest against that hateful thing known as Vivisection'.

Author: 
Lady Burdett Coutts [Angela Georgina Burdett-Coutts, 1st Baroness Burdett-Coutts] (1814-1906), philanthropist, social reformer and one of the wealthiest women in England [Anti-Vivisection]
Publication details: 
24 March 1876; Stratton Street [London].
£65.00

3pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged, but with traces of glue on blank reverse of second leaf, which has a vertical closed tear the length of a fold line in blank space beneath signature. The male recipient is not named. The letter begins: 'Dear Sir | Do not think me intrusive but I cannot resist offering you in writing the warm thanks of my heart for your Protest against that hateful thing known as Vivisection'. She has read with 'feelings of thankfulness the expression of your opinion which Mr Froude stated with his own to Mr Cross'.

[Spelling Bee competitions in Victorian Kennington and Guildford.] Eleven items, including an advertisement, a programme, tickets of entry and competitor's ticket, newspaper cuttings, compiled by T. W. Williams, manager of Kennington competitions.

Author: 
Spelling Bee competitions in Victorian Kennington and Guildford [T. W. Williams, manager; The Impartial Spelling Bee Association, Williams & Rhodes, Kennington; F. Ridgway; J. Irving Dixon]
Publication details: 
Competitions in Kennington and Guildford, 1876. Manager of Kennington competitions: 'Mr. T. W. Williams, 149, Lower Kennington Lane, S.E.'
£220.00

The eleven items are in fair condition, lightly aged and worn, laid down on two heavily-worn leaves removed from an album. An interesting slice of social history, relating to introduction into England of a phenomenon which began in the Unites States in the 1850s. Nine of the items relate to spelling bees in Kennington, managed by the compiler of the material T. W. Williams, and one to a 'Grand Spelling Bee' in Guildford.

[Horace Bushnell of North Church, Hartford, Connecticut, Congregational minister, religous writer.] Printed pamphlet: 'Prosperity Our Duty. | A Discourse delivered at the North Church, Hartford, Sabbath Evening, January 31, 1847. By Horace Bushnell.

Author: 
Horace Bushnell (1802-1876) of North Church, Hartford, Connecticut, Congregational minister and religious writer [Case, Tiffany & Burnham, Hartford printers]
Publication details: 
'Published by request.' Hartford: Printed by Case, Tiffany & Burnham, 1847.
£120.00

24pp, 8vo. Saddle-stitched pamphlet in pink wraps the the title-page reprinted on the cover, this time within a decorative border. In fair condition, aged, worn and creased, with slight loss to outer corner of front cover. Bushnell takes as his text 2 Chronicles XXXII.30, and begins his 'Discourse': 'Any community or city will prosper that will do its duty.

[Mary Stocks (Lady Stocks), author and supporter of women's suffrage and social reform.] Autograph Letter Signed ('Mary Stocks') to J. Samson of the Royal Society of Arts, regretting that she is 'too senile' to chair a meeting.

Author: 
Mary Stocks [born Mary Danvers Brinton; Lady Stocks] (1891-1975), writer and worker in fields of women's suffrage, welfare state and social work; linked to Strachey, Wedgwood and Ricardo families
Publication details: 
31 August 1973. On letterhead of 'The Lady Stocks', Aubrey Lodge, Aubrey Road, W8 [London].
£60.00

1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged, with pin hole to one corner. Folded twice. The surname in Stock's signature underlined in green. She is 'greatly honoured' by Samson's invitation, '& it is a thing I should have loved to do. But the sad fact is, I am getting too senile to be sure of being able to keep a discussion in hand as a competant [sic] chairman should'. The letter concludes: 'I fear I am a bad example of an 82 year-old in view of what Sybil Thorndike does at 90!'

Syndicate content